Merrillville scrimmage at Lowell provides tune up for both teams

LOWELL (08-10-2012) I don't know if scrimmaging against Lowell helps Merrillville. The Pirates open the season again this Friday against super power Warren Central.
I don't even know if Lowell scrimmaging Merrillville helps Lowell. The Devils looked good in the scrimmage against the Pirates in August of 2011 but they finished the season at 5-5 and a 3-game losing streak.


So whether it helps either side or not, I hope that Merrillville always scrimmages Lowell. The two sides favor emotion and speed over size. The coaching staffs seems to get along. Lowell defensive coordinator Derek Thompson has Merrillville ties. Merrillville quarterback coach Joe O'Connell is one of Lowell's best QBs of the last quarter century. They match up well.

And they did again in the pleasant 70-degree sunset in Lowell last Friday. Merrillville established their superiority in speed and offensive technique. Lowell then made their simple, time-honored offense work and both teams upped their game defensively in front of a small crowd on a perfect night. Both sides seemed to get a lot out of the 90-minute final dress rehearsal for the 2012 season on Lowell's long natural grass.

"Let's not get too excited," said Lowell's third year coach Keith Kilmer. "I'm not a dummy. They can drop back and throw the fade on us anytime they wanted. Our defensive backs played pretty well tonight, but at a certain point, our athleticism takes over."

"What we see in practice obviously is our spread offense and that's totally different from what Lowell does," said Merrillville eighth-year coach Zac Wells. "Lowell shows us a lot of what Lake Central does. LaPorte is 100% this. Valpo does some of this."

Basically what Wells means is simple. Some teams play outside the hash marks while teams like Lowell run between the tackles.

"Sometimes our guys start playing in space," explained Wells, "and they forget that the game is played between the tackles. That's where it's won."

"These guys (Lowell) have linemen who always come off the ball hard. It's good to play them."

The Pirates scored on their first series of plays from their own 35 yard line. Senior tailback Dylon Collins, the state runner-up in the 100-meter dash last spring, scored on a six yard run. Lowell also scored once on their series of scrimmage plays with junior George Fields scoring from 12 yards away.

The second sequence had teams trying to score from the 10-yard line. In 12 plays Merrillville scored three times, twice on TD passes from senior QB Jake Raspopovich. Junior tailback Bryant Isabel (5-9, 200) ran eight yards for a score.

Lowell answered with three TDs, including two TD passes. Junior receiver Eddie Simmons (5-8, 156) made a diving catch of a pass from backup QB Josh Bottos (5-8, 150) before Michael Hilbrich (5-11, 166) caught a 10-yard toss from senior QB Bryan Thomas. Backup tailback Tyler Hopkins (5-9, 159) ran 10-yard for the third TD and he looks like he could get some playing time this season as Fields is also a linebacker.

On a series of plays from the opposition's 35-yard-line, Lowell and Merrillville exchanged TDs again as darkness fell. There did not appear to be any new injuries on the night which was more important to Lowell, who had about 50 boys in uniform than it was to Merrillville, who has almost 100 boys on the roster.

Merrillville, a 5A school, was 8-4 last season after a 54-13 loss to Warren Central on opening night. Lowell, a 4A school, was 5-5 after an 0-2 start. The Devils looked better on offense than they have the last two seasons. They showed depth at the running back and quarterback position and, while they are breaking in four new offensive linemen, it was a good night.

There were maybe ten total breakdowns where the Pirates blew up the play in the backfield, but halfbacks George Fields and Tyler Hopkins, both underclassmen, ran the ball hard and QB Bryan Thomas also looked like he can be a ground gainer this season.

Bottos, a junior, took some hard hits from the speedy Pirates, but he showed he can play if needed and he might be. Thomas was also used as a first string defensive back, something new from last year.

For Lowell not to get blown off the field by the Pirates is a moral victory, but Lowell coach Keith Kilmer says, don't get carried away with that.

"If Zac had wanted to, they could have spread us out and run the fade on us all night," he said. "We moved the ball when we needed to but our problem the last two years has been dealing with adversity.

"We had some great peaks tonight and we had some pretty bad valleys. We've got to accentuate the peaks. Once we settled in, it was a nice fun scrimmage with both teams playing hard."

The Pirates obviously would have scored a lot more had they left senior offensive stars Raspopovich and Collins on the field much of the night, but there was no reason to do that in a match up that had no meaning. Lowell ran their plays confidently and Thomas, who had ball handling problems in 2011, showed none of that in Friday's scrimmage and he had a highlight 20-yard, tackle breaking run.

"Thomas is a tough kid and any time we can run for a first down it excites these people here," said Kilmer. "We're not going to break many plays against Merrillville. Anytime we can move the chains, we're happy. When your QB shows he can take a hit, it inspires the other kids. George Fields has had a great camp. If he stays healthy he's going to have a monster year."

"Our little sophomore has had a great camp. It makes us feel good that we have depth at the running back position."

Lowell is long and lean this year with seniors Anthony Mauer (6-3, 183), Spenser Kersey (6-2, 235) and TE-LB Mitch Leckrone (6-3, 205), plus tall safety Aaron Hamm (6-3, 190) and sophomore newcomer Colton Wilkey (6-3, 164), the fourth string quarterback, who will make his debut as a place kicker in the season opener this week at Crown Point.

There was no place-kicking or punting and no kickoffs in the scrimmage so you cannot rate the teams off what you saw. The Pirates have a quality senior kicker in Matt Warren.

"I was looking a little more at our defensive line tonight than our offense," said Wells, whose team opens the 2012 season Friday night at the Lucas Oil Arena in Indianapolis against Warren Central. "And I thought we played pretty well. I thought we clicked in that first series. We're replacing five O-linemen this year and I think they were pretty decent. We stayed on schedule and had some nice pitch and catches."

Lowell gets more out of scrimmaging Merrillville than the Pirates do practicing with Lowell. It's good preparation for Lowell's first two foes.

"Morton," said Kilmer, of who Merrillville resembles on the Devils' schedule. "Maybe Crown Point from what we hear. Everybody's going to spread us out. And everybody's going to put 11 in the box (defensively) until we show we can beat that. This is a great scrimmage for us."

SCRIMMAGE NOTES: Merrillville head coach Zac Wells, a former Merrillville high fullback and linebacker in the early 1990s, never played at Lowell.

"I don't know when I was here or why I was here," he said after the game Friday. "But I remember being here (as a player). It must have been a jamboree (the old multi-team scrimmage). I think that's what it was."

"I've been here. When they went deep in the tournament, I've come down to watch them play. But as far as playing, I think there was just that one time."

Lowell junior punter and defensive back Aaron Hamm (6-3, 190) is struggling with a knee problem that forced him to leave Friday's scrimmage. Coach Keith Kilmer said it's a reoccurring thing Hamm is going to have to deal with all season.

Word is that while the Lowell-Merrillville scrimmage will continue, this is the final time the Pirates will go from Lowell to Warren Central in week one. Merrillville has scheduled South Bend Clay to open the season in 2013 as Warren Central reportedly wishes to play out-of-state teams.

When Lowell QBs Bryan Thomas and Josh Bottos hit some roll-out passes, the plays were greeted with sincere cheers from the small crowd. Lowell ran their short pass plays crisply.

"Don't get too excited," said Kilmer. "They didn't bring the 'house' (blitz) and put the heat on us.

"We can throw the ball 2nd-and-5. But we can't throw it 2nd-and-10. When we're 2nd-and-10, everybody ignores our play-action and we're in trouble. If you look at film, for 19 years, that's how we've been."

Kilmer say that Josh Bottos will get some time at quarterback this year in relief of senior Bryan Thomas.

"We've got to have No. 8 (Bottos) ready," said Kilmer. "Lets see how No. 12 (Thomas) holds up. With him going both ways, we'll need Bottos. Tonight was his first real action at a QB. This is the first time that what he has done mattered against a varsity team. He wasn't just turning around and handing it off."

"He's a smart kid. He's a 4.0 student. He can handle it."

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Revised: August 11, 2012 .